Contents of this Issue

• Making Conservation Affordable (Jharna Joshi and Shailesh Gongal)

Reviews

• Water Rights, Conflict and Policy (Rajendra Pradhan et al., eds.)
• Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India (Veena Das)
• Notes from a Small Island (Bill Bryson)
• Aanandamaya Aakaash (Madanmani Dixit)

Jharna Joshi and Shailesh Gongal

The restoration of Kathmandu's Hanuman Dhoka Durbar in 1970 with UNESCO's help was the first major foreign-assisted architectural conservation project in Nepal that went beyond the research and documentation phase. Two years later the Germans restored the Pujari Math in Bhaktapur. These projects heralded the era of international assistance in the conservation of Nepali monuments.

In 1974, the Germans started the Bhaktapur Development Project, an endeavour that went on until 1986. In 1979, seven sites within the Kathmandu Valley were selected for inclusion in the World Heritage Site List. In collaboration with the Department of Archaeology (DOA) which was itself established in 1952, many foreign consultants are today involved in different heritage conservation projects in Nepal. The three-decade long history of foreign assistance and involvement in this field has been so pervasive that heritage conservation is today perceived as something that can only be pursued with foreign monetary and technical aid.

Prior to the restoration of Hanuman Dhoka Durbar, conservation as a 'project' was non-existent in Nepal. Rather, the work of conservation was done in the form of rituals - periodic or seasonal - by responsible guthis. They also carried out minor repairs (such as replacing the jhingati tile roofs with brass roofs) during festivals or pujas. These guthis generated the necessary revenue for such repair and maintenance activities from the lands endowed to them.

The 1934 earthquake devastated most of Kathmandu Valley's monuments such as the Pachpanna Jhyaale Durbar (55-window palace), Taleju, Degutalle, Dharahara, etc. The restoration work that followed, perhaps the greatest one in Nepal's history, was achieved without any foreign assistance as far as we know. This was done using local skills and resources mobilized by the individual guthis and the Rana government of Juddha Shumsher.

The Documentation Relay

In post-Rana Nepal, with the loss in the overall efficacy of guthis, the inability of the Nepali economy to find alternate financial sources for the upkeep of the monuments, and the failure of governmental institutions to implement building by-laws, the business of conservation gradually shifted to international development agencies. Today, agencies such as UNESCO, UNDP, ICROM, ICOMOS and GTZ have taken the form of global guthis; their conservation works spread all over the world.

When international agencies first got involved in conservation work in Nepal, they funded various documentation and research projects, and helped prepare the plans of the cities and locational maps of different monuments. Some of these reports include: Recommendation on Archaeological and Architectural Monuments in Nepal (1963-64, Paor, UNESCO), Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Nepal (1964, C Jest, UNESCO), Development of Cultural Tourism (J. C. Pallaco), Recommendation on the Preservation of Historic Properties and Development of Cultural Tourism (1968, E. A. Connelly, UNESCO), Preservation of Monuments in Nepal (1970, N. R. Banerjee, Indian Co-Operation Mission), etc. These exercises definitely helped in the delineation of the Monument Zones for the World Heritage Sites. But except for the first few original works in this genre, the subsequent reports and their recommendations have been somewhat redundant. Since research and documentation involve the use of expensive hi-tech instruments by specialists, such redundancy has come at a high price. The on-going conservation work of Patan Durbar Square is an example of this.

The documentation of Patan Durbar Square was completed as early as 1981 by a Japanese team from the Nippon Institute of Technology. Latest technologies available at that time, such as stereo camera meter, were used for measurements and recording. But in 1993, UNESCO/Japan Trust Fund supported yet another study of the same at the cost of $375,000. This study was completed in two phases (the responsibility for each was given to two different teams) by 1996 using electronic theodolites to produce digital maps and drawings. A major part of the first phase of this study was done manually. Ultra-detailed documentation, especially of Sundari Chowk, was made. This is an excellent work of fine art but it lacks construction details. From the point of view of actual conservation work, it was also unnecessary given the existence of the 1981 Japanese Report.

Significant restoration of the Sundari Chowk, estimated at $265,800 by the DOA and UNESCO, could have been achieved with the money spent for the latter study. Another example of an expensive project was the restoration of Keshab Narayan Chowk in the same Durbar Square which took fourteen years (with many interruptions and controversies in between) and $1,000,000 to complete. This restoration is exemplary from an architectural view point even though it may be unconventional from the perspective of 'pure' conservation because steel and cognate materials have been used.

The irony is that when these great monuments were built, the simplest of hand-made tools were used with great skill by local craftsmen. We are not even sure whether they used any scaled drawings to produce these masterpieces of architecture. And the entire cost of building was, of course, borne by the then Malla City states.

Affordable Conservation

Conservation work need not be prohibitively expensive. The restoration of Bhairab Mandir in Bhaktapur by that town's Municipality Office can offer us an example of affordable conservation. This restoration was completed at the cost of Rs.31 lakhs as against DOA's estimated cost of Rs.75 lakhs. The money came from the Municipality's own coffer and cost reduction was achieved, in the main, by the non-delegation of the project to a third party. Under direct supervision of the Municipality, local expertise was used for the restoration work. Without losing sight of the fact that the Bhaktapur Development Project initiated by the Germans had laid the foundation for conservation work in Bhaktapur, it has now become capable in preserving its heritage.

The case of the Bhairab Mandir should prove that conservation need not be expensive and that the necessary funds and expertise can be located within the country. Hence, after three decades of working with international agencies, it is time to assess where we stand in the field of conservation of our heritage. We need to assess what research has been done and what affordable non-redundant research needs to be done for future conservation work. We need to also assess the actual restoration work completed thus far and come up with ways to increase Nepali participation, both financially and technically, in future conservation works. We need to start an era of Nepali leadership in heritage conservation.

(Joshi is an architect. Gongal, a civil engineer, is an organizer of Martin Chautari)